Madness by committee

2/26/09 2:52 PM

With the unequivocal best time of the sports year a mere three weeks away (shhh, don’t say March Madness out loud, we don’t wanna scare it away), more contenders seem to be getting struck by injuries to key players every day. It started off with ever-lovable mid-majors Davidson and St. Mary’s suffering the huge losses of their game-changing guards, Stephen Curry and Patty Mills, for stretches of time. More recently, major conference contenders have been suffering injuries to key guards as well, with UNC and UConn losing Marcus Ginyard and Jerome Dyson, respectively, each for the season. Blake Griffin suffered a nasty concussion last Saturday in a game Oklahoma eventually lost. Just Wednesday night, Marquette, too was bitten by the injury bug, with Dominic James out for...

First round of NESCAC Tournament offers up plenty of storylines

2/26/09 2:51 PM

Dangerous lower seeds fail to threaten top dogs: While no team seeded lower than fifth had ever made it past the first round of the NESCAC Tournament, it seemed that this year’s No. 6, 7 and 8 seeds were, at the very least, going to give the top three teams a run for their money. But none of the three lowest seeds so much as threatened with an upset bid, all falling by double digits -- and then some -- as the tournament’s top dogs held serve. Eight days after nearly pulling off an upset of nationally ranked No. 6 Amherst, eighth-seeded Williams was no match for the top seed, Bowdoin, falling 85-52. In an even more lopsided outcome, seventh-seeded Colby -- which beat Tufts on Jan. 23 and lost to Amherst by a point a week later -- lost by 41 in a rematch with the second-seeded...

Boras' Manny Problem

2/23/09 1:28 AM

Scott Boras, the Darth Vader of baseball, scourge of happiness, and devourer of newborn babies (look it up, it's true), seems to have finally found himself in a pickle that he can't negotiate himself out of.  When Manny Ramirez threw his most recent hissy fit this summer, most of New England's devoted Red Sox fans saw it as just the same old, same old.  Manny had done this many times before and would surely do it again.  He'd make a stink a couple of weeks before the trade deadline, come this close to getting traded, and then reemerge triumphantly from the dugout, all worries gone and hitting the cover off the ball for the last three months of the season.  Something was different this time though, something more sinister at play; this time, Boras the Terrible was...

A Tale of Two White Dudes

2/13/09 11:08 AM

Tim Tebow and Tyler Hansbrough: probably the most well-known collegiate athletes in their respective sports. Two guys who came in as highly-touted five-star recruits and have undoubtedly lived up to the lofty expectations of their notoriously demanding fan bases. Both have won the highest individual honors in their sports (Heisman for Tebow in 2007 and a sweep of all six major trophies, including Wooden and Naismith, in 2008 for Hansbrough), both forewent millions of dollars by returning for their senior seasons, both have been rumored to have obscenely hot girlfriends, and both are utterly detested by a majority of college sports fans. Why exactly do we hate these two seemingly blameless young athletes?  My personal hatred for Hansbrough stems mainly from the way he plays the game... 3 comments

Live Blog: Women's Basketball @ Amherst

2/8/09 6:20 PM

UPDATE, Saturday, 11:50 p.m. A smattering of the postgame reaction: Amherst coach G.P. Gromacki, on his team's defense (courtesy Ethan Landy): "We’ve been stressing defense. It’s been getting better, getting to where we want it. Today it was great, everything we could ask for." Tufts coach Carla Berube, on her team's poor free-throw shooting: "We’re not the type of team that goes to the free throw line 25 times, but when we do go there, we have to capitalize on our opportunities and score those points. There were key times when we were trying to get over a hump of four to six points, and we didn't step up and and make our free throws. It’s just hard to see that because we’re good shooters, and we need to be able to knock those...

Michael Phelps: American Hero?

2/6/09 10:54 AM

I believe Sir Charles Wade Barkley said it best when he proclaimed, "I am not a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids."  Year in and year out, we hear about athletes shirking their "duties" as role models to the wayward children of America.  One of the most overblown examples the world has yet seen came in the form of this week's Michael Phelps bong "controversy." After the picture of him taking a rip off of a bong first appeared this week in a British tabloid, major news sources took the story and ran a freaking marathon with it.  One of the first, The Times of London, was also the most ridiculous in its hyperbole, with... 2 comments

In preseason poll, softball Jumbos rank best in New England

2/2/09 11:40 AM

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) released its preseason Divison III poll on Wednesday, and the Jumbo softball team was prominently featured. Tufts drew the No. 10 spot in the rankings, the highest by any team in New England. Coming off a 30-11 2008 season, the defending conference champion Jumbos will return no shortage of firepower. In its infield alone, Tufts will feature two of the last three NESCAC Players of the Year (1B Christy Tinker and 2B Danielle Lopez), the 2007 NESCAC Rookie of the Year (SS Casie Sullivan), and a three-time All-NESCAC selection (3B Samantha Kuhles). In addition, the Jumbos will bring back five members of a pitching staff that held opponents to a conference-best .247 average last season. The Jumbos will get an early crack at one of the teams...